At 12:53 PM 5/20/2002, Eric W. Biederman wrote: >Bill Arbaugh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > Guys, > > > > If you look at the list of items, it starts to resemble the > functionality of a > > real OS. > > This was Ron's insight with LinuxBIOS. Unfortunately, Linux is now too > big to > > fit > > > > into most flash chips. > > > > We tried here at UMCP using Red Hat's eCos, but it was too limited. The > *BSD > > OS's are too large as well. Etherboot has been a good alternative, but > as we > > look > > > > at adding more and more. It will become OS like...something it wasn't > really > > designed > > to become. > > > > Ron played around with Plan9, and that seems to work. > > It also has much of the support asked for on the wish list already. > > > > What are people's thoughts about Plan9? > >- Plan9 isn't a widely used OS so this doesn't trivially solve the > hardware support disparity.
The driver support looks pretty good to me, and I think it would be easier to develop a driver for Plan9 than etherboot. >- Plan9 might not go small enough. Ron has managed to get a kernel small enough and it even had SSL support! >Large scale usage depends on a strategy that is generally useful. And for >that size is an enourmous consideration. The usage size of Plan9 is likely to be larger than etherboot. >I will check it out, as there looks to be some potential with plan9. > >A lot really depends on what it takes to deploy this stuff. > >I guess we should also include in the wishlist encrypted signature checking. We have that mostly done now in etherboot. Since the semester almost over, I expect Adam Agnew will have it all wrapped and announced shortly. >My working hypothesis is that I will have to build a mini-os, to use >for bootloader purposes. And I will measure every solution against >what it will take to build a mini-os. The mini-os advantage is that >it can steadily improve and not be tied to other goals. Agreed. But, a specialized mini-os is huge effort. I'd prefer a small general purpose OS. Just look at the wishlist and you'll somebody wants a little bit of everything. >Eric
